AI War:Missiles

How Do I Get EMPs, Nukes, And Other Missiles?

A: All of these can be built at the Missile Silo, a very expensive Constructor unit. Each player can only build one Missile Silo, so be mindful of where you build yours. The Missile Silo can be found under the CONST tab of your command station. Be prepared to spend over a hundred thousands metal and crystal if you want to build missiles -- the Missile Silo is relatively expensive by itself, and the missiles are even more so.

And best of all? The AI does not have or use missiles at all. It already has a variety of core ships that humans can never build (only capture with parasites), and now humans have a unique type of ship that the AI never gets.

AI_War:Fleet_Command

Nukes

How Do I Use Nukes?

A: Nukes are the most powerful missile in the game. They are wicked expensive (100k each of metal and crystal), they take an hour to build (or 16 minutes with 3 engineers assisting the silo), and they and detonating them also has the negative effect of raising the AI Progress by 50 (in addition to any AI Progress increases that are incurred based on what you destroy). Oh, and there's the risk of accidentally having one of your own missiles detonate on your planet or an ally's planet, which is super bad news.

So, those are the negatives about nukes... why the heck would you want to use one? Well, when one goes off, it completely destroys all non-core, non-starship ships at a planet (plus it destroys the planet itself, and all the resource spots there). This is something to only be done with care, but it can really be a lifesaver in some situations. For instance, in one solo campaign there were two Mark IV planets right next to the player's home planet.

This was a really tough map, and so the player was nine hours in and both those two planets remained untouched. The player hadn't even managed to pull off a gate-raid, although he had tried several times. This meant that there were two hostile wormholes leading right into his home planet, which in turn meant that he had to keep a pretty sizable garrison there. This was inconvenient and expensive, and his resources keep getting destroyed and needing to be rebuilt. With a couple of nukes, he could take out those two planets with relative ease -- but the cost in terms of AI Progress is pretty steep, so it had to be really worth it. He thought it was, but using a nuke on one of the planets actually cost him the game...

We mentioned that starships are immune to nukes, right? Well, as it turned out the AI had a huge number of starships on the planet he nuked: 11 Zinth and 19 Spire. He had 20 planets and around 1,500 ships (this campaign was not going overly well, as has been noted, so he was low on forces). With that many starships suddenly set loose from guarding their (now destroyed) planet, he lost every planet he controlled while massing his forces at his home planet. He had around 800 ships that survived and made it to his planet to defend, and he set up mines and turrets all over the place, but it wasn't enough; the starships still slaughtered him.

Clearly, before you nuke a planet like that you need to deal with the starships first. Even with just four or five starships there it's something to be prepared for; that can still cost you several planets, or even the game if they are near your home planet and choose to strike out in that direction. One of the many dangers of nukes.

We also mentioned that nukes can be set off on your own planet. Basically, there are two ways to set off a nuke or emp -- scrap it yourself, or have it get shot down by enemies. If enemies are on your planet and happen to destroy the nuke, there goes your planet and all the resources and ships on it. Your home planet command station is immune to nukes, just like core ships and starships are, so those will at least survive (you won't lose the game immediately just because of one misfire, in other words), but it is still a VERY costly mistake to make.

So, given all this, nukes come with a little in-game warning that only advanced players should try to use them. Nuking a whole planet out of existence is great (morbid) fun, but the potential repercussions can be pretty dire. Just as in real life, firing a nuke is not something to do casually.

AI War:Fleet Command

EMPs

How Do I Use EMPs?

A: Compared to nukes, EMPs are a much more casual affair. They cost half as much in terms of time-to-build and resources, and they don't have any negative consequences in terms of AI Progress or anything else.

Setting off an EMP at a planet will paralyze all non-core, non-starship ships at that planet (enemy ships, your ships, and allied ships). This makes space docks and starship constructors pause in building, it makes all affected ships unable to fire or move, it reveals all cloaked ships, it temporarily disables all mines, and it temporarily takes down all force fields. These effects last for about thirty seconds.

There are a lot of potential uses for EMPs, but the best are in concert with starships or with a fleet waiting just on the other side of a nearby wormhole. Once the EMP has detonated and paralyzed all the enemy ships, bring your fleet in and use the brief window to accomplish whatever needs doing. This is a great way to take out a force field that has a lot of high-level ships under it, for instance (in those situations, it can sometimes be very tricky to take out the force fields with bombers alone). This can also be used as an effective way to do a gate-raid on a planet that otherwise has too many high-level ships.

So EMPs tend to be way safer to use, but a lot trickier in most circumstances. They definitely help as a siege-breaking tactic, though!

AI War:Fleet Command